So after a night at Golina's unamed hostel we were up for 7am to catch the minibus she said she had booked for us. Although it was a little late we finally got on our way with some people from France, Israel, Russia and Finland. The minibus was in an interesting state of repair with a very cracked windscreen, questional sealing on the doors/windows and some old vinyl flooring.
We had a 6 hour drive from Irkutsk to a small town called Khuzir on Olkhon Island. The first 3 hours of the drive were ok if not a little cramped (we were in the middle of a big rain storm and the driver didn't have any sheeting to put over the roof rack so all the bags were in the bus with us!), there was also a massive draft coming from the rear door that Kaz and Sadie were sat in so were freezing until the driver threw back a quilt for them. After a brief stop to use the most horrific toilets at a petrol station we found that the tarmac road had finished and the next 3 hours were on very bumpy, stoney and fairly dangerous tracks. This didn't stop our driver from still driving as if he was on the M42 and insisted on overtaking every vehicle we came across. To get onto the island we have a half hour ferry crossing and another hour to get to the town.
We stopped in place called Nikitas Homestead which was like a little hippy commune. We paid 800 rubles (16GPB) a night which included 3 meals a day. They didn't have room in the homestead so we stopped with an old lady just around the corner. We had electricity, water was from a bucket and a hole at the end of the vegetable patch as a toilet. Kaz was delighted to find a stove outside so she could boil water for feet soaking and clothes washing! All the food was very simple but delicious. Breakfast consisted of porridge, eggs and pancakes. Lunch was always a pickled salad, some fish and rice. Dinners had the same fish and salad combo with some meat and rice/potatoe/pasta.
One of the highlights of an evening (apart from the stunning sunsets and stars) was the Banyas... You get to sauna first, then have a stand up bath. Unfortunatley there was no bunches of birch sticks to hit each other with, so we improvised.
The island and lake are mind-bendingly beautiful. A mixture of woodland, mountains, sand dunes and steppe. It is also has Russian's in tents listening to techno at all hours of the day and a depressing amount of litter from said Russian's (Greenpeace would have a task on their hands in some places on the island).
We walked up the coast about 5 miles and on the way had a swim in the lake. I say 'swim', it was the coldest water i have ever been in, so was a very brief dip. We also sat on the beach for several hours watching the world go by, skimming stones and Sadie and Kaz threw stones at me and at tomatoes...
In the other directions there was a number of hills so we had another day of trekking up to the tallest one (photo from the top). While taking in the views from the top, 2 bus loads of Russians turned up, took some photo's and one even stripped down to her bikini and had a quick sun bathe - wheres the sense of achievement in that?
The final evening we watched 2 very attractive women fire-dancing just outside the homestead... a great end to 4 days on the island.
Sadie's fancy long exposure shot... |
Making stone monuments... |
Sunset view from our room |
What a beautiful place! The view from the top of the mountain with the annoying Russian ladies is amazing, doesn't look real! Keep having a LOVELY time, miss your faces, can't wait to see/hear about your adventures in Gobi xxx Amy
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